White House Aides Scramble To Save Boss

IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

December 13, 1998|By New York Times

WASHINGTON - White House aides grimly set about the task Saturday of securing 218 House votes to prevent the impeachment of President Clinton on four grave charges of presidential misconduct reported by the Judiciary Committee.

Aides spent the day reaching undecided members of the House and marshaling legal and political arguments against impeachment. There was neither hope nor pervasive gloom among White House officials, only a sense of unreality and a determination to do everything in their power to save Clinton from the ignominy of being only the second president in history to be impeached.

Clinton left for Israel early Saturday with no further comment on the impeachment votes beyond his latest statement of contrition Friday afternoon.

But a political ally who spoke with the president Friday night said Clinton was in a state of ``disbelief'' about the week's events.

The president did not think he would lose his job, Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said. But Clinton has not reconciled himself to the strong possibility that the House will impeach him and plunge the country into constitutional turmoil, Torricelli said.

``The president knows ultimately the position of the Senate is against impeachment,'' Torricelli said. ``I don't think he is weighing the possibility of ultimately being removed from office. He is more focused on the fact that he will be distracted from his responsibilities and the nation will be engaged in a protracted and divisive legal struggle in the United States Senate.''

Clinton aides did not rule out his using free time on the four-day journey to Israel to contact members of Congress. Two undecided Republican moderates, Reps. Rick Lazio of New York and Jon Fox of Pennsylvania, were among the 13 members of Congress accompanying the president on the trip.

The White House's strategy boiled down to two central elements: to provide any wavering members of the House a detailed legal defense of the president, while driving home the point that a vote to impeach and remove Clinton from office would have dire effects not only on the nation but on the Republican Party.

The president's allies are reminding members that the likelihood that the Senate will not convict Clinton does not lessen the import of next week's House vote.

``We are telling them that a vote for impeachment is not a statement of principle or a way to punish the president,'' one senior aide involved said Saturday. ``A partisan vote for impeachment would not remove the president but would mark this Congress in history and plunge us into a god-awful spectacle of tying all three branches of government in knots for months over allegations of sexual infidelity.''

The real action will begin Wednesday, when the 435 House members return to Capitol Hill to consider an action the House has taken only once before, and not for 130 years. House leaders summoned members scattered around the country and even overseas, and Democrats are even making arrangements for a military medical transport plane for Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who is confined to bed recovering from hip surgery at home in California.

Upon arrival, each lawmaker will receive a copy of a report from the Judiciary Committee explaining the basis for the impeachment charges. A minority report from the Democrats will be included also, making the case against removing the president.

Republicans and Democrats will meet separately Wednesday afternoon to be briefed by their leaders and to plot strategy.

The House will convene Thursday morning to decide Clinton's fate. For all the gravity and historical impact of the debate, House members expect to wrap it up and vote on the same day, though they do not rule out extending it through Friday.

White House political advisers have begun making blatant political appeals to undecided moderate Republicans, arguing that a public that opposes the removal of Clinton by a wide margin would not soon forget their votes and would punish them at the polls in 2000.